The Bat *** (1959, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon) – Classic Movie Review 3591

The right stars in Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead crank up writer-director Crane Wilbur’s creaky 1959 version of the maniac-in-the-mansion stage chiller play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Price plays Dr Malcolm Wells. Moorehead plays Cornelia van Gorder, a clever dowager mystery novel writer who rents a spooky old dark house called The Oaks, where murders were committed by a criminal known as The Bat and now a murderer is looking for hidden loot. Great though Price and Moorehead are, Wilbur can’t quite make the old thing fly, but it is still spooky and fun enough.

Also in the cast are Gavin Gordon as Lieutenant Andy Anderson, John Sutton as Warner the Chauffeur, Darla Hood, Lenita Lane, John Bryant, Harvey Stephens, Mike Steele, Riza Royce, Robert B Williams and Elaine Edwards.

Mary Roberts Rinehart’s play The Bat was previously filmed in 1915 and 1926, and (as The Bat Whispers) in 1930.

The Bat (1959) is in the public domain, so beware versions of inferior quality.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3591

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